Driver Boards
Driver boards are used to control features (coils, leds/lamps, motors, etc) on a pinball machine or in other applications. They can be driven by a P-ROC and many other programmable microcontroller-type devices.
Each driver board has an RS-485 serial interface so that it can be chained to other driver boards. Therefore, you can use as many boards as your application requires. Further, since the serial interface will continue to work at distances well over 10 feet (100 feet even), you can locate the boards in the backbox, under the playfield, or anywhere else in your machine.
There are 3 types of driver boards:
| Power Driver 16
|
Power Driver Matrix 8x8
|
Master
|
There are two types of circuits on these boards: Sink and Source.
'Sink' circuits make a connection to ground through an N-channel MOSFET. These are typically used to activate a playfield feature (coil, motor, flashlamp, etc), where one side of the feature is connected to the required DC voltage, and the other side is grounded when the MOSFET is activated.
'Source' circuits make a connection to a source voltage through a P-channel MOSFET. These are typically used to activate a column in a lamp/LED matrix. The matrix rows are connected to 'sink' circuits so that individual lamps/LEDs in the active column can be lit by completing the path to ground.
Mastering the chain:
Each chain must include an RS-485 master. We offer a Power Driver Master, a Power Driver 16 / Master combo, a Power Driver Matrix 8x8 / Master combo, and a Mini RS-485 board for this purpose. Any one of them can start a chain. Typically, you'll choose a Power Driver Master or a Mini RS-485 board if you won't have any features in your backbox and you want to locate the rest of the boards in the chain under the playfield.
A 3rd party RS-485 transmitter can also be used as a master if its bandwidth is at least 10 mbps. When using a 3rd party RS-485 transmitter with a P-ROC, it also needs to be 3.3V compatible, as the P-ROC's data output is 3.3V. Otherwise, you'll need to level shift the data. Because most 5V devices will work fine with a 3.3V input, chances are good that the P-ROC will work with a 5V RS-485 transmitter.
Alternate controllers:
Many microcontrollers, such as a 16 MHz (or higher) Arduino, can be used instead of a P-ROC to drive a chain of driver boards. If using something other than a P-ROC with a Master Driver Board or one of the Master combo boards, please ensure that its data output is 3.3V compatible, as the data input on the Master boards is 3.3V. Otherwise, you'll need to level shift the data.
The Mini RS-485 board that we sell has a 5V compatible input; so it can be used with a 5V microcontroller directly.
Availability: In stock
Example Configurations
Here are a few examples of machine features and the corresponding number of driver boards to control them:
|
Game Features |
||
|
128 individually controlled features |
8 | 0 |
|
32 individually controlled features 1 8x8 lamp matrix |
2 | 1 |
| 64 individually controlled features
2 8x8 lamp matrixes |
4 | 2 |
| 56 individually controlled features
1 16x8 lamp matrix |
3 | 2 |
For more information, check out the Frequently Asked Driver Board Questions.
